


Hero For Hire

by amathela



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-14
Updated: 2013-10-14
Packaged: 2017-12-29 09:56:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1004025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amathela/pseuds/amathela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jessica Jones: Avenger. Or, not quite. Jessica does the superhero thing, more or less. Also featuring Luke Cage, Stay-At-Home-Dad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hero For Hire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [likeadeuce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/likeadeuce/gifts).



> Set following Avengers v.4. Not compatible with current Avengers titles.

"Power Woman."

"No," Jessica says. "We've had this conversation before."

"You liked it before," Luke says.

"I didn't hate it before," she corrects him. "Why do you care, anyway? You're not even Power Man any more."

"Hey," he says. "I'll always be Power Man."

"A," she says, "you're retired. Retired people don't get code names. B, isn't some kid calling himself Power Man now?"

"Might be," he concedes. "So?"

"So it's confusing," she says. "Someone'll say, oh, Power Woman, as in wife of Power Man? And I'll say yes. And they'll say, I didn't know Power Man was married. And I'll say, no, not that Power Man, the other Power Man. The one who's retired and isn't Power Man any more. Confusing."

Luke just stares at her.

"What?"

"That's a lot of words."

"It was a stupid idea."

"I'm getting that," he says. "Could always be Jewel."

She wrinkles her nose, images of skin-tight jumpsuits and pink hair filling her head. "I don't think so."

"Knightress?"

Even worse. "We're still pretending that never happened."

"So, what?" he asks.

"Are you sure about this?" she asks him instead.

"Sure about what?" he asks. "Helping you pick out a name? I'm starting to not be."

"No," she says, moving a step closer, tracing his fingers with hers. The house is blessedly quiet, nothing like Avengers Mansion. It's nice. Also supremely dull. "This. All of this. Giving it up."

"It's just for now," he says.

"I thought you wanted to bring back Heroes for Hire."

"I am," he says. "I'm just not the one they're hiring."

"You love this."

"I'm sure," he says. "Have you seen our baby? I mean, seriously?"

"I've seen her," she says dryly.

"Then you know," he says, pulling her close.

"Yeah," Jessica says, into his chest. "I know."

"Are you sure?" he asks.

She is. Mostly. "Jessica Jones."

"What?"

"Jessica Jones," she repeats. "If you can go around being Luke Cage, I can be Jessica Jones. No alias."

"Jessica Jones," he says, and grins. "Hero for hire."

-

Jessica Jones, disaster for hire is more like it. She wonders if that's descriptive enough for a business card, if maybe she can fit, _Jessica Jones, pay me money and I'll try not to completely ruin everything but I can't make any promises_.

Maybe Jessica Jones: Professional Fuckup is more to the point. It's certainly pithier.

"Carol," she says, when the call goes through on the first ring. She can't help but be relieved. A little surprised, too, though she tries not to be. Old wounds being hard to close, and all that. Today certainly didn't help that any. "I don't suppose you're free right now?"

She can hear people in the background, hear someone call out Carol's name, so she's even more surprised when Carol says, "Sure. Where do you need me?"

Not _what do you need?_ Good odds Luke's already told a few people about her new thing, then. Which pretty much nixes her Plan C, which was 'quietly back out of this and pretend the whole thing never happened.' Possibly that's why he did it.

"Downtown," she says, letting out a breath. Guesses she's committed, now. "Industrial district."

"I'll see you?"

"You'll smell me."

Carol hangs up quickly, but Jessica still catches her laugh, half-stifled as the line goes dead. Well, that's great. At least she's an entertaining mess.

And at least Carol's the only who'll have to se her like this. If she ever shows up.

Jessica passes the time by cleaning herself up as much as she can (minimal), retracing her steps (far), and going over what she knows about the case in her head (not as much as she thought she did). She considers calling Luke, but he's home with the baby, and she doesn't want to risk it in case he's finally gotten her to sleep. Besides, there's a small, stubborn part of her that doesn't want him to know she failed, even though he knows everything else about her.

Not that it matters, in the end.

"This is why you're late?" Jessica asks Carol as she descends. "What did you, start a phone tree?"

Carol looks apologetic - a little - but the effect is kind of ruined by the smile that keeps threatening to creep back onto her face. "Got an urgent call," she says, picking something off Jessica's shoulder. Oops, guess she missed that bit. "But I came straight here afterwards."

"I can see that," Jessica says, shooting a pointed glance behind her, at where the assembled Avengers are standing.

"It wasn't on purpose," Carol says. "But I told them where I was going, and they offered to come along."

"All of them?" Jessica asks, sceptical. She really doesn't know whether to be more surprised or embarrassed at this point, but she figures she can probably do both. She's a good multitasker. "And what, you couldn't shake them?"

Carol shrugs. "Figured it you could use my help, you could use more."

Which is ... not strictly inaccurate, but she still feels like she's way misrepresented the situation to Carol. Because this is not an Avengers-level situation. At all. And the way she figures it, next time she'll run into freaking Thanos or something and nobody will want to come out and help her again, and she'll be screwed.

"So," Carol says. "Who are we after, anyway?"

Jessica screws up her face.

-

"You called the Avengers out here to help you catch Shocker?" Hawkeye asks her, as they follow the route Carol relays from the air. Jessica's new earpiece still sounds a bit squelchy - why it had to be one of the really messy dumpsters she landed in, only karma knows - and she's pretty sure she's already ruined a piece of tech that probably cost more than her mortgage.

"Okay," she says. "First of all, I did not call the Avengers. I called Carol."

"And she called us."

"Didn't ask her to."

"Still pretty embarrassing."

She glances sideways at him, narrowing her eyes as far as they'll go. "I've heard stories," she says. "Wouldn't be so quick to judge, if I were you."

"Not judging," he says, smirking as she runs a hand through her hair and then wipes it on her jeans. Okay, so maybe if she's going to do the superhero thing, she needs a superhero wardrobe, but the only thing she had on hand was her old Jewel outfit (that she'll never admit she still owns), and she'd rather go naked. "Impressed. I'm just grateful when it's not me screwing up."

Okay, then. "And second of all, he's ... tricky."

"Shocker?"

Well, maybe not. But it's better than admitting she rushed headlong into a fight without proper intel. Especially when finding things out used to be her full-time job.

"We're here," she says instead, as Captain America starts relaying orders down the line. At least he sounds like he's taking this whole thing seriously, even if he shouldn't be (and Jessica isn't entirely convinced his whole attitude isn't just to help her save face). Hawkeye's right - Shocker is a C-list villain at best. Hell, even Spider-Man can take him down without breaking a sweat.

Apparently, you're just not supposed to punch him. Suit deflects physical attacks, apparently, which, yeah, she got the full dumpster diving demonstration on that one. It would have been a nice thing to know a couple of hours ago.

"Remember." Carol's voice comes down the line as Jessica moves forward, and it's ... weird. She's not used to being in the field with other people, not really, and not recently, not even if she tried it out not so long ago. _Doesn't play well with others_ is probably on the S.H.I.E.L.D. file she's sure they have on her somewhere. Still, it's not bad weird. "This is Jessica's gig. We're strictly backup."

 _Jessica Jones and the Avengers_ , she thinks. They could go on tour. She - barely - resists the urge to laugh out loud.

"Except you, right?" she asks, wishing everyone else couldn't hear her, too. "I'd really like to get home in time to put my kid to bed." Plus, physical attacks are, like, ninety percent of her manoeuvres, so having an extra skill set probably won't hurt.

"I thought Luke was doing that stuff now?"

"He is," she says, and now she really, _really_ wishes they had a private line. "Doesn't mean I don't miss it."

"Second thoughts?" Carol asks, and Jessica pauses, but only for a second.

"No," she says, and stops short as she spots Shocker disappearing around a corner. _Stupid_ , she thinks. He had hours to get away, get hidden, but instead he's milking it. The guy deserves to get caught. "I see him. Ready?"

"Ready," Carol says.

It isn't her first fight of the day, but it's the first one she isn't losing from the ground up, and she forgot how much she missed this. The rush of adrenaline, air rushing past already sweat-slick skin, the joy of spotting the weak point in an enemy's attack. It's something she hasn't felt in too long (at least not sober, not like she'd remember in the morning).

She's just begun to really find her rhythm when Shocker takes a step forward, and suddenly he's disappearing, leaping over her head. "Son of a bitch," she spits, and whirls around; next time she's definitely doing her homework. Carol's there before he even lands, though, blocking his path, looking like a version of Captain fucking America in the new costume, only one who can fly. Shocker pulls up short, already backing away; Jessica would do that, too, if Carol weren't on her side, and she's seen her in thigh-highs and a unitard.

"Now," Carol says, and Jessica rushes him, trying not to second guess it, forcing herself to trust. It isn't exactly the most natural thing in the world, but he half turns as she charges, giving Carol the break she needs to kick out at his gauntlets, shorting them just before he can shock her.

Or before he can shock Carol, at least. Jessica doesn't get the full force of it - she's guessing she hit him just as they shorted - but she feels the vibration coursing up and down her body nonetheless, mild enough that she can ride it out but still hard enough to set her teeth on edge.

"Damn," she says, as he goes down underneath her. Hits his head hard enough to put him out, not so hard she's worried about calling him an ambulance. "Usually I don't mind a bit of vibration, but that is not the kind of thing I was thinking of."

"You want these?" Carol asks, smirking as she holds out the crushed gauntlets. Damn. Jessica can hold her own, but even she wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of one of Carol's swings. "Before Iron Man gets his hands on them? Souvenir."

"I'm good," she says. "Safety thing, you know? No supervillain contraptions around the baby."

"Right," Carol says. "So how's that going, anyway? With Luke at home?"

"Surprisingly?" Jessica asks, though it's not, really. Luke was ten times more ready to be a dad than she was to be a mom. "Really good. Power Man's even better with kids than Squirrel Girl."

"Shocker," Carol says, and Jessica can't help it; she bursts out laughing, still half-leaning against a nearby wall as she tries to recover from the last hit.

"That," she says, "was terrible."

"And we should do it more often," Carol says.

Jessica shoots her a dubious look, but Carol stands her ground, her expression growing serious.

"I mean it," Carol says. "You ever think about coming back? To the Avengers, I mean."

"I was never really an Avenger," Jessica says.

"You could be."

Yeah, she could be a lot of things. But an Avenger? Yeah, probably not. "I don't think so."

"Why not?"

 _Seriously?_ she wants to ask. _You, of all people, have to ask?_

Instead, she says nothing, looks down at the ground until Carol drops it. Maybe some day, she'll be ready. Be Avengers material, or whatever. Right now, she's just trying to get back in the game.

"There's a spot for you on the team," Carol says, and Jessica wants to hug her for not pushing it. Almost. "If you change your mind."

"Yeah," she says, glancing away. Across the street, a sign outside a run-down coffee shop catches her eye. "Hey, you up for coffee? I could really use some caffeine and sugar right about now."

"You got time?" Carol asks.

"A bit," Jessica says. "Enough. Think the mighty Avengers are man enough to clean this up while we celebrate?"

Carol glances down at the prone Shocker, and back up at Jessica. "Definitely," she says. "But you're buying."

Jessica grins. "My case, my treat."

-

She's still filthy by the time she gets home - not filthy enough for the coffee shop to turn down two costumed Avengers (or, one costumed Avenger and one random woman covered mostly in trash, but still), but enough that all she wants to do now is strip off, have a long, hot shower, kiss her kid goodnight and crawl into bed herself.

Of all the things she isn't in the mood to do, getting laughed at by her husband is pretty high on the list.

"Seriously though," he says, in what may be the worst apology known to man. "I love you, but you look like shit."

"Hi, honey," she says, ignoring him and the smile he probably thinks he's hiding. "How was your day today? Terrible? Shocker vibrated you right into a dumpster before you chased him halfway around the city? Gee, that sounds terrible, let me run a bath for you and massage your feet. Oh, thanks, that'd be great."

Luke doesn't say anything for a while, and then, "Shocker? That guy seriously gave you the runaround? Hell, he's not so tough. You just got to not try to hit him."

"Wow," she says, rolling her eyes. "Thanks for that. That kind of information might even have been more useful before you sent me out to fight him."

"I thought you knew about the gauntlets."

"I didn't."

"Everybody knows about the gauntlets."

"Except me."

"How do you not know about the gauntlets?"

"Seriously?" she asks. "I don't know if you noticed, but I've kind of been out of the loop for a while."

"Heard that changed today."

Jessica eyes him. "Yeah, I thought you might."

He meets her gaze, and shrugs. "I'm not allowed to talk about you now?"

"You're allowed."

"They ask you to join?"

That makes her pause. Does he know, or is he guessing? "Might have."

"And?" he asks.

"And," she says, "I liked our plan better."

"Yeah?" he asks. "What is our plan?"

"Right now?" she asks. "Our plan is to check in on the kid, squeeze both our asses into that tiny shower, and forget about being a superhero for the rest of the night."

"Shower, huh?" he asks, and smiles. Jessica knows that smile. In fact, she's a little surprised her clothes aren't off already. "Yeah, I could get behind that plan."

"Yeah?" she asks. "Good. And the next time you send me out on a job, I damn well better be briefed."

"How about I debrief you right now? he asks, and she groans inwardly, but still reaches for him.

"I think," she says, "we have ourselves a plan."

And maybe tomorrow, she'll even - finally - come up with a code name.


End file.
